Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) has accused Israel of intentionally restricting food and humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, resulting in what the medical charity describes as a “manufactured malnutrition crisis” with particularly severe consequences for infants, pregnant women, and breastfeeding mothers. The organization released its findings on Thursday based on data collected between late 2024 and early 2026 from four health facilities it supports in Gaza.

The report attributes the worsening nutritional and health conditions to Israel’s ongoing blockade of essential goods, as well as attacks on civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities. The consequences, MSF said, have been devastating for maternal and newborn health, with higher rates of prematurity, newborn mortality, and miscarriages observed. The charity emphasized that despite a ceasefire in place since October 2025 following two years of conflict, the situation remains extremely fragile.

Analyzing data gathered from over 200 mothers and newborns treated in neonatal intensive care units at hospitals in Khan Younis and Gaza City from June 2025 to January 2026, MSF found that more than half the women had experienced malnutrition during pregnancy, with a quarter still malnourished at delivery. Nearly 90 percent of babies born to malnourished mothers arrived prematurely, and 84 percent had low birth weight. Neonatal mortality rates among infants born to these mothers were twice as high as those for infants of well-nourished women.

MSF also examined information on 513 infants under six months of age enrolled in outpatient therapeutic feeding programs in Khan Younis between October 2024 and December 2025. The charity reported that 91 percent of these infants were at risk of poor growth and development. By the end of 2025, fewer than half of the 200 infants who exited the program had recovered, while 7 percent had died. The crisis extends beyond newborns: between January 2024 and February 2026, MSF enrolled 4,176 children under 15 years old—97 percent under five years—in acute malnutrition treatment programs, as well as 3,336 pregnant and breastfeeding women in ambulatory care.

The report also criticized the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.- and Israeli-backed private organization established in 2025 to supplant much of the United Nations’ aid distribution in Gaza. MSF highlighted a dramatic reduction in food distribution points from approximately 400 to just four by late May 2025 under the GHF’s management before the foundation disbanded in November 2025. MSF's emergency unit head, Jose Mas, described the distribution sites as “militarized and deadly.” The charity observed a sharp rise in injuries related to violence at these food distribution points, as well as increased malnutrition linked to a general lack of food during the GHF’s operational period.

MSF called on Israeli authorities to immediately allow unrestricted access for aid and supplies into Gaza, reiterating that the nutritional crisis is a direct consequence of the blockade and restrictions imposed since the outbreak of renewed conflict following the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. Merce Rocaspana, MSF’s medical referent for emergencies, emphasized that malnutrition in Gaza was nearly nonexistent before the recent hostilities, underscoring the role of the blockade in creating the current emergency.